{"id":2344,"date":"2012-03-05T08:04:47","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T13:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2344"},"modified":"2012-07-15T19:55:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T23:55:36","slug":"impressions-people-i-knew-an-interview-with-nat-hentoff-by-john-w-whitehead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/impressions-people-i-knew-an-interview-with-nat-hentoff-by-john-w-whitehead\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressions: People I Knew: An Interview with Nat Hentoff by John W. Whitehead"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Conversing with Nat Hentoff produces feelings of sincere admiration coupled with deep yet light-hearted envy. Aside from being a prolific writer and journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Village Voice<\/em>, and numerous others, Hentoff\u2019s self-proclaimed three life passions are jazz, the Constitution, and an atheist approach to anti-abortion. To add to that list, Nat is a nationally renowned civil libertarian and opponent of the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Born in Boston on June 10, 1925, Nat Hentoff attended Northeastern University where he received a B.A. with highest honors and would later receive an honorary Doctorate of Law.\u00a0 Thereafter, Hentoff spent much of his career writing for numerous news publications, but he also hosted several jazz radio shows, wrote the album liner notes for artists like Bob Dylan, and authored numerous books on jazz, the Constitution, and the importance of civic education. While many individuals see some of Hentoff\u2019s views as particularly idiosyncratic, perhaps this is understandable given that when asked of his ideological leanings, Hentoff has quipped that he is \u201ca member of the Proud and Ancient Order of Stiff-Necked Jewish Atheists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nat Hentoff had the fortune of knowing many movers and shakers. On the jazz end there is Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Dizzy Gillespie, just to name a few. In regards to civil rights and politics, Nat speaks warmly about his relationship with Malcolm X and key Black Panther member Eldridge Cleaver. On the topic of the Constitution and civil education in general, Nat describes his admiration for and relationship with the late Justice William Brennan, who also held the deep conviction that civic education is a necessity for American life.<\/p>\n

Hentoff is an icon and hero in his own right, but hearing him talk about some of his more notable acquaintances is truly a treat. It comes as no surprise that the 86-year-old seems to most admire those individuals who are still working with their passions, most notably Bob Dylan and Woody Allen. While the list of individuals is both exhaustive and impressive, one can tell that Hentoff is most fascinated by the legendary jazzmen he came to know both personally and musically. Nat warmly recollects a run-in with trumpet aficionado Dizzy Gillespie where the musician likened him to an \u201cold broad,\u201d a description that Nat took as a compliment and undoubtedly looks back fondly on. As a Jazz critic, author, and admirer, Hentoff finally got his due when, in 2004, the National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Initiative named Hentoff a Jazz Master. What makes this title all the more special is the fact that Nat is the first non-musician to receive the honor. While Hentoff has received numerous prestigious awards to accompany his Jazz Master title, one can assume that he is particularly tickled to have his name etched beside the masters.<\/p>\n

This particular interview elucidates the fact that Mr. Hentoff still has the passion and desire to voice his claims and make a difference. And while the list of individuals that Nat has known throughout his life is impressive to say the least, a personal conversation with the man himself brings forth notions of glamour and <\/em>wisdom, and the fact that Nat is a true and invaluable national treasure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

JWW:<\/strong> Nat, you’ve worked with and known a lot of notable people.\u00a0 Let’s start with Malcolm X.<\/p>\n

NH:<\/strong> At first I had only heard about Malcolm in the black press.\u00a0 I used to read it, among reasons, because I was involved in the civil rights movement.\u00a0 But I also wanted to see if there was anything about jazz in it.\u00a0 Oddly enough there wasn’t. \u00a0I was then writing for a magazine called The Reporter<\/em> and when I heard about Malcolm X, I wanted to do a story on him.\u00a0 I found out where the mosque was in Harlem that he was then presiding over. \u00a0I called the mosque and surprisingly they invited me over.\u00a0 When I arrived, I was the only white guy in the room.\u00a0 They gave me my coffee and I heard on the jukebox a wonderful singer singing about his hatred of white people.\u00a0 I walked over and saw his name was Calypso Joe and I knew who that was.\u00a0 It was Louis Farrakhan.\u00a0 This was my initial introduction to the culture surrounding Malcolm X.\u00a0 I waited but no Malcolm.\u00a0 So I finally headed toward the door and there was somebody sitting at the table near the door and he said, “Who are you looking for?” I said, “Malcolm X,” and he said “Sit down.” \u00a0It was Malcolm himself and for an hour or so I was lectured to by the man himself.\u00a0 And then somehow we got to be friends but to our mutual surprise.\u00a0 Later we were both on a panel on the radio show and we both broke each other up.\u00a0 A lot of laughter.<\/p>\n

JWW: What did he lecture you on?<\/p>\n

NH: All about Elijah Muhammad and why he was known for black pride, black action and so forth.\u00a0 So anyway, we got to be friends.\u00a0 This was even while he was still with the Nation of Islam.\u00a0 He would call me at home sometimes.\u00a0 My wife, who answered the phone, was a very bold, courageous person.\u00a0 She would come to me and say, “Mr. X is on the phone.”\u00a0 And as we got to know each other and when he finally left the Nation of Islam, I saw what was happening.\u00a0\u00a0 He had started another organization and in the last year of his life he was still in the Civil Rights Movement and fighting for equality.\u00a0 However, he was willing to work with whites with whom he agreed.\u00a0 The last time I saw Malcolm was at a radio station.\u00a0 He had just been interviewed and he said to me, “You know, my house was fire bombed.” \u00a0With a surprised expression on my face, I said, “Yeah!” \u00a0Malcolm said, “Well, I tried to go into a hotel yesterday because I was writing something and the phone rang and they said, ‘We know where you are Malcolm.'”\u00a0 Next thing I knew he was assassinated.<\/p>\n

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JWW: Did you work with any of the Beats?\u00a0 Did you know, for example, Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg?<\/p>\n

NH: I knew Kerouac because when I read On The Road<\/em> I was much taken by it.\u00a0 However, there wasn’t much substance to the Beat movement.\u00a0 It was largely rhetoric. \u00a0Kerouac once was at the jazz club here in New York City working with jazz musicians.\u00a0 So I got to know him then.\u00a0 I remember talking with one of his cohorts who was arguing that ROTC should be banned from the colleges.\u00a0 And I said, “Look, do you believe in the First Amendment?” – He said, “Yeah. \u00a0Sure.”\u00a0 I replied, “Well, don’t you realize there are some of those students who want to hear what they have to say? \u00a0Isn’t that violating the First Amendment?”\u00a0 He got very angry at me.<\/p>\n

JWW: Did you know Allen Ginsberg?<\/p>\n

NH: I got to know Allen fairly well.\u00a0 I must say Allen was such a strong free speech guy.\u00a0 And, of course, his famous poem “Howl” did a lot to alert people to what was going on in this country.\u00a0 He was a remarkable guy.\u00a0 He was himself.\u00a0 He was an original.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: What about Lenny Bruce?<\/p>\n

NH: I guess I probably knew him better than anybody. \u00a0I so admired what he was doing and why he was doing it.\u00a0 For example, he often played in a club called The Village Vanguard.\u00a0 It was near where I lived.\u00a0 The Vanguard was one of the first clubs that had a naturally integrated audience.\u00a0 It was a jazz club.\u00a0 I heard him a lot.\u00a0 One of his routines shocked the audience.\u00a0 In fact, one night Lenny said, “Hey, are there any niggers here tonight?\u00a0 Any spics?”\u00a0 Everybody was about ready to stone him.\u00a0 And he said, “Why do you react so much to a word? \u00a0Why don’t you think about where that word comes from?”\u00a0 Lenny was such a First Amendment advocate.\u00a0 Indeed, a First Amendment nut.\u00a0 I say that lovingly.\u00a0 And during the course of his trial, I went to his hotel room and all across the room, including the kitchen, there were books on the First Amendment.\u00a0 His trial of his for obscenity took place in New York City which was supposed to be the hippest city around.\u00a0 Lenny was convinced that if he lost in New York it was going to be the end of his career.\u00a0 But he expected he would win in the U.S. Supreme Court.\u00a0 \u00a0At the trial I was a defense witness and I was examined on the stand by a lawyer named Richard Kuh who was soon to become the next District Attorney of New York City.\u00a0 The incumbent who brought the case against Lenny was about to retire.\u00a0 When I got on the witness stand Kuh asked, “Is it not true that you once supported a man who went into a military establishment in Nevada and tried to convince them not to commit war on Viet Nam?”\u00a0 I said, “Yes.” \u00a0That was A. J. Muste, a very important man. Muste was one of the leading critics of the Viet Nam War.\u00a0 Kuh tried again and again to break me down.\u00a0 He didn’t.\u00a0 My testimony didn’t help the trial because the verdict was already preset.\u00a0 Lenny was found guilty.\u00a0 The last time I saw Lenny he was in San Francisco.\u00a0 He was at the club working.\u00a0 \u00a0I could tell he was pretty bogged down.\u00a0 When he died, to everybody’s surprise the then Governor of New York Pataki decided to give Lenny a posthumous pardon under the name of free speech.\u00a0 It was sad that Lenny wasn’t around to see that.<\/p>\n

JWW: You knew the jazz greats.<\/p>\n

NH: I have I guess 3 passions.\u00a0 One is the Constitution. \u00a0The other is jazz and the other is being an atheist prolifer which, of course, gets me in a lot of trouble — all of which combines into free expression.\u00a0 I knew Louis Armstrong somewhat but the person I knew the best was Duke Ellington.\u00a0 He was my mentor.\u00a0 I was so fortunate when I first started writing on jazz. \u00a0I was on the radio. I met Duke and we talked and he gave me a lifelong lesson.\u00a0 He said he had just heard a disc jockey who talked about old time jazz, Dixieland and cutting edge jazz.\u00a0 Duke said, “Look. \u00a0Do not categorize about music.\u00a0 You take each musician at the time and open yourself to that musician.” I have tried to do that with everything else that I do.\u00a0 And since you mentioned Duke, one of his important sidemen gave me a very important lesson for life.\u00a0 I learned so much from these guys but not only about their music.\u00a0 A guy named Ben Webster was a tenor saxophonist.\u00a0 He left Duke and was traveling around the country with his own combo.\u00a0 Most of\u00a0 the club owners wouldn’t pay for any extra money so Webster had to do what he could do with the local musicians to get them into the groove.\u00a0 One night in Boston he wasn’t making it. The band wasn’t making it.\u00a0 He was trying.\u00a0 We were sitting at the bar and he suddenly looked at me and he said “Kid, kid, when the rhythm section ain’t making it, go for yourself.”\u00a0 That taught me a lot of things about dealing with editors and I must say with former wives.<\/p>\n

JWW: What about Dizzy Gillespie?<\/p>\n

NH: Dizzy had the most generous spirit.\u00a0 I mean, he was so caring with everybody.\u00a0 The guys in his band loved him because he would take the time to educate them.\u00a0 He would sit them down at the piano and say, “Now, you got to know this stuff because that is where it all comes from.”\u00a0 Dizzy once gave me the biggest award I had ever had. \u00a0It was unlike any other. \u00a0I had not seen him for a few months and a band was rehearsing that he had picked for an all star concert. \u00a0I think it was at the UN.\u00a0 So I got there and the musicians were there, but he wasn’t there. \u00a0Dizzy comes down the hallway with a friend of his. \u00a0He sees me and runs over and gives me a big hug and he says to the guy with him, “It’s like seeing an old broad of yours.”\u00a0 Now, nobody ever gave me that kind of compliment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: And you knew Billie Holiday.<\/p>\n

NH: I once said that just meeting her on the street and hearing her say hello was a special kind of music in and of itself.\u00a0 She was somebody who went through a lot of bad times and always came out Billie Holiday.\u00a0 She was part of something I am exceptionally proud to be part of.\u00a0 There was a CBS Sunday afternoon television program called “The Sound of Jazz.”\u00a0 That was in the late 50s and the guy who did it was the most brilliant imaginative producer in all of television — a guy named Robert Herridge.\u00a0 He said to me and Whitney Balliett who was bringing in the musicians, “I want this to be pure, I don’t care if people know them or not.”\u00a0 Well, the musicians there were Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young and Billie. You couldn’t get them together again.\u00a0 And when we had a lighting session Billie came in and I said, “I just bought a $500 gown for you Billie.”\u00a0 That really shocked her. That was a lot of money then. \u00a0This is going to be a live show.\u00a0 I said, “Billie, look around you. \u00a0This is the set.”\u00a0 The guys were wearing their hats as they usually do at a rehearsal and all that and the show was so moving.\u00a0 It has been played again all over the world and the most moving part of it was toward the end when Billie was surrounded by a small combo including Lester Young who had been a great influence on her.\u00a0 Lester called her “Lady Day” and she called him “Prez” after the president of the tenor saxophone.\u00a0 Once the set began they were talking to each other about music.\u00a0 It was so moving that in the control room I had tears in my eyes, and so did the producer and the engineer.\u00a0 It was just extraordinary.\u00a0 Anyway, when the show was over I came down in the studio and Billie, who had been so mad at me about the $500 gown, came over and kissed me.\u00a0 She was so pleased with the show.\u00a0 Now that was an award I will never forget.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: Yeah, that must have been a great kiss to receive. You said you knew Louis Armstrong.<\/p>\n

NH: The one time I really had a chance to talk to Louis at length was at a concert in Boston. \u00a0As usual he knocks himself out. \u00a0So he was pretty tired but nonetheless he let me talk to him for over an hour backstage.\u00a0 He went into quite a story about Jim Crow.\u00a0 Not only in New Orleans and the South, but he told me he was playing Connecticut in those years and they rode on a band bus. \u00a0They come to a gas station.\u00a0 Louis wanted to go to the men’s room and one of the guys who owned the station saw them coming and rushed in and locked all the doors.\u00a0 Anyway Louis, when Governor Faubus of Arkansas refused to listen to the Supreme Court when they ordered the integration of the schools in Little Rock, in an interview attacked Faubus and attacked then President Eisenhower for not doing anything about racial discrimination soon enough. \u00a0Joe Glaser who managed Louis was shocked.\u00a0 He sent a man down there to tell Louis to shut up and never do that again.\u00a0 But, of course, Louis did it again and again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: And then there was Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n

NH: I first heard Dylan when he came to New York. \u00a0He was playing at a club called Gerdes Folk City near where my wife and I lived. I had seen him a couple of times. \u00a0I was not impressed with his guitar playing or for that matter with his voice.\u00a0 But I was very impressed with what he did with the lyrics.\u00a0 And then Robert Shelton of the New York Times<\/em> wrote an article on Dylan, which made him a national figure.\u00a0 Soon after that I wrote a long piece on him for The New Yorker<\/em>.\u00a0 I would meet him on the street in the village and he would say, “When is it going to run, when is it going to run?”\u00a0 Later I got to know him better.\u00a0 I was also responsible in part for a notorious interview with him.\u00a0 It has been anthologized.\u00a0 I did a Playboy<\/em> interview with him.\u00a0 I had done other Playboy<\/em> interviews with Joan Baez and the anti-war people.\u00a0 I did a normal interview with Dylan at Columbia Studios.\u00a0 Playboy<\/em> had a proviso that I should never have agreed to.\u00a0 When they were ready to run an interview it had to be shown to the subject in case that person had something to object to.\u00a0 So one Saturday morning I was sitting ready to type and the phone rings. \u00a0It’s Bob Dylan.\u00a0 He is furious.\u00a0 “They changed some of my stuff, I won’t allow that.”\u00a0 I said, “You know the deal with that. You just tell them not to run it.”\u00a0 Dylan said, “No.\u00a0 We are going to do another interview right now.”\u00a0 Fortunately I had a tape recorder on the desk.\u00a0 When we started the interview, I realized I was going to be the straight guy.\u00a0 Dylan was improvising surrealistically and very funny.\u00a0 I don’t know if you have ever seen the interview.<\/p>\n

JWW: I have read it.<\/p>\n

NH: So you can see. \u00a0I never knew what the next question was going to be.\u00a0 I just had to improvise depending on what he was doing.\u00a0 I never knew where it was going to lead but I knew that was something that had never happened before.\u00a0 I have a lot of respect for Dylan.\u00a0 People should read his book Chronicles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

JWW: What did you think when he decided not to do protest songs anymore?<\/p>\n

NH: Well, that was interesting.\u00a0 Dylan gave a speech before a very strong liberal organization.\u00a0 That is where he said he had had it with being a voice of protest.\u00a0 That shocked a lot of people.\u00a0 I think what happened to him was he also wanted to be himself — period.\u00a0 He didn’t expect at that time that what he said would be publicized and later widely known.\u00a0 Dylan was uncomfortable being known as just a protest singer.\u00a0 He wanted to go back into himself and do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: You also knew Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver.<\/p>\n

NH: Yes.\u00a0 I knew Eldridge very well.\u00a0 I had written a book for young readers called Journey into Jazz<\/em>.\u00a0 It was about a white kid who was being taught by some black musicians on how to get in to the world of jazz.\u00a0 I got a phone call.\u00a0 I later learned that it was Cleaver.\u00a0 He wanted to know, “Is this book for adults too?”\u00a0 I said, “Sure. \u00a0Anybody.”\u00a0 I later got to know more about Cleaver.\u00a0 He became, of course, very, very controversial and I got an interview with him for Playboy<\/em>.\u00a0 So I arrived at Eldridge’s place, and the guys with guns escorted me into Eldridge. \u00a0It was a very strong and interesting interview.\u00a0 And then we talked often after that.\u00a0 He was not, however, as thoughtful and as penetrating as Malcolm X was.<\/p>\n

JWW: What about the Black Panthers?\u00a0 How did you feel about the Black Panther Party?<\/p>\n

NH: Well, I am against anybody who uses violence to make their points and they did that.\u00a0 I got to talk to one of the guys who was on trial for murder.\u00a0 Malcolm, for example, made it very clear that if somebody goes after you– whether it’s cops or not– you have to defend yourself.\u00a0 \u00a0But he was not an advocate for violence the way the Black Panthers were.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: Malcolm X criticized Martin Luther King.\u00a0 Did you ever have any contact with Martin Luther King?<\/p>\n

NH: Oh yes, once. \u00a0I knew Bayard Rustin who was the guy who worked with King.\u00a0 Bayard organized the march on Washington at which Martin King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.\u00a0 He advised Martin on nonviolent resistance.\u00a0 I was doing a biography of A. J. Muste who was one of the leading strategists of nonviolent direct action against the Viet Nam War. \u00a0In a phone interview with King, I said “Did you ever know A. J.?”\u00a0 And Martin Luther King said, “When I was in divinity school, this old man came in — A. J. always looked like an old man — and he started telling us about Gandhi and nonviolent resistance and it hit me and it stayed with me.” \u00a0I thought that was very interesting.<\/p>\n

JWW: What about the Beatles?<\/p>\n

NH: I did not know them directly.\u00a0 I loved a lot of what they did.\u00a0 There was some popular music I liked at the time although my main interest was in jazz, but the Beatles were fresh.\u00a0 They had fun with their music and that was a big help.\u00a0 They really had fun.\u00a0 They were not making it up.\u00a0 When John Lennon and Yoko had a bed-in for peace in their hotel room in Toronto, I was invited.\u00a0 So I went.\u00a0 My wife and I and spent a very amiable hour or so talking to both of them.\u00a0 There’s a photo of it. \u00a0Some people are stunned that I was actually in his presence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: Yes, Lennon is treated like a god now.<\/p>\n

NH: I was struck that he had a very lively subtle sense of humor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: And you worked with Woody Allen.<\/p>\n

NH: I like Woody Allen an awful lot.\u00a0 I first knew of him as a standup comic. \u00a0But he was a lot like Bill Cosby in that he did not say what you would expect somebody to say, and then when he did he went on and said other things you didn’t expect him to say.\u00a0 But he made me, for 33 seconds, a movie star in his film Sweet and Lowdown<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s a movie on jazz and about the problems of the jazz guitarist.\u00a0 So he asked me to be myself in the movie and talk about this guitarist he was doing the movie on.\u00a0 Well, I get to the set. \u00a0As we are warming up — you know he played clarinet in a Dixieland band — and we talked about what reeds he used.\u00a0 Then we started the filming.\u00a0 Before that he said, “All you have to do is look at me and talk to me.”\u00a0\u00a0 I thought that was pretty good directing.\u00a0 So I was on for a brief period.\u00a0 That meant I had to join the Screen Actors Guild and all that. \u00a0I recently got a performance check for 89\u00a2.\u00a0 But it was a real kick to be in a Woody Allen movie.\u00a0 Woody is still producing good work.\u00a0 The people I admire are those who keep on producing and working and going on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JWW: You knew Justice William Brennan.<\/p>\n

NH: I knew Brennan very well.\u00a0 He had done so much to bring the Court back to the Constitution — such as the First and the Fourth Amendments.\u00a0 So I decided what have I got to lose.\u00a0 I called his chambers and asked if I could see Justice Brennan and interview him.\u00a0 It was Justice Brennan who answered the phone.\u00a0 He said, “Sure.\u00a0 Come on up.”\u00a0 So during one of the times I was in his chambers, we were talking and then he got very somber and said, “What are we going to do, what are we going to do with these kids in school, so that they can make the Bill of Rights part of their lives?” That is the question I keep writing about because we haven’t done it.\u00a0 Even civics classes have almost disappeared from the schools.\u00a0 So things have not gotten any better.\u00a0 With Bush, Cheney and Obama, we are seeing the same attacks on the Constitution. \u00a0One of my biggest fears is as this goes on, and it can go on, kids will not make the Constitution part of their lives. They won’t know much at all about the Bill of Rights — the centerpiece of our democracy.\u00a0 We are going to have a long period where people are accustomed or conditioned to what’s going on now with the raping of the Fourth Amendment, for example.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>JWW: Of all the people you have ever had contact with, who would be the person you would say you were most honored to be around?<\/p>\n

NH: None of the ones I am talking about, although obviously I was much shaped and impressed by them.\u00a0 When I was a kid in Boston, it was one of the most anti-Semitic cities in the country. \u00a0If you were living in the ghetto as I was, the Jewish ghetto part of Roxbury, and you went out alone at night, you might be subject to having people attacking you for being a Christ killer.\u00a0 The most popular radio show then across the country was Father Charles Coughlin who spoke out of the Church of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan. \u00a0He was the most effective of all the anti-Semites.\u00a0 A friend of mine in Latin school introduced a woman to me named Frances Sweeney.\u00a0 She is the one who has most influenced my life.\u00a0 She was a devout Catholic.\u00a0 She was also furious at the anti-Semitism in Boston, spoke against it, wrote against it and was very angry that the Catholic press never said anything about it. \u00a0So she went to see then Cardinal O’Connell, not O’Connor — I knew O’Connor later.\u00a0 O’Connell paid no attention to it.\u00a0 He almost threatened her with excommunication if she didn’t stop. \u00a0Of course, she wouldn’t.\u00a0 Frances got some of us to attend various meetings including meetings of anti-Semitic groups.\u00a0 And that is when I learned not to take notes when people are watching you.\u00a0 But anyway, I so respected her and what she did for us. Then one day, she had us take a test as to what our prejudices were.\u00a0 The next meeting she threw the papers on the desk and said, “You are all a bunch of bigots.”\u00a0 Our own prejudices came out.\u00a0 That impressed me.\u00a0 But I supposed what most impressed me was she never stopped doing what she wanted to do.\u00a0 Her doctors told her to soften up her schedule.\u00a0 She had a heart condition.\u00a0 She had a heart attack on one of the main streets in Boston.\u00a0 She fell into the gutter and could not speak. \u00a0But she did remember afterwards when she could speak that people would come by — I guess she looked very Irish to them — they didn’t do anything to help her.\u00a0 Some people would say, “See? \u00a0Another Irish drunk.”\u00a0 She recovered from that for a short time.\u00a0 This encapsulates the kind of life I most admire.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Malcolm X <\/strong>(Malcolm Little): <\/strong>Born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to a Baptist minister with strong sympathies toward the Black Nationalist movement, Malcolm grew up around the concept of Civil Rights. After living a troubled youth, Malcolm became a devoted Muslim and dropped his familial last name (Little) and instead used \u201cX\u201d to signify his lost tribal name. Malcolm became a national spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI) but would later found his own religious organization after becoming disenchanted with the NOI. After forming his own organization, Malcolm became more open to the idea of preaching to more than just African Americans. It was at this same time that Malcolm was the recipient of frequent death threats. Sadly, and before Malcolm could truly preach his new dream of integration and equality, those threats became a reality when, on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot down by three gunmen (all members of the NOI) while giving a speech at a Manhattan ballroom. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jack Kerouac <\/strong>(Jean-Louis Kerouac): Born March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts and learning English after he knew a French dialect called joual, <\/em>Jack became impassioned with storytelling at a young age. Jack attended Columbia University in New York, but would soon drop out mainly due to complications with his football coach. Jack later joined the Merchant Marines and spent the majority of his free time with others involved in the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsburg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady. His second and best-known work, On the Road,<\/em> was completed in 1951, but it took quite a while before it was published. The eventual success and celebrity that On the Road<\/em> brought Kerouac would prove daunting, leading the author to participate in perpetual alcohol binges and bouts of depression. Kerouac kept writing and publishing throughout his life, but unfortunately he died an early death in 1969, most likely due to complications stemming from his alcoholism. While Jack\u2019s life was a mixture of grief and enlightenment, his writing has proved timeless and his role as a key figure in the Beat Generation remains unquestioned. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lenny Bruce <\/strong>(Leonard Alfred Schneider): Born October 13, 1925 in Mineola, New York, Lenny became a famous comedian, satirist, and social critic. After serving in and seeing active duty in the Navy from 1942 to 1945, Lenny was discharged (first dishonorably but later reversed) for claiming to have homosexual urges. Bruce would later write screenplays, produce albums of original comedic material, and perform stand-up. Moving from New York to California with his wife, Lenny performed at strip clubs and found various other ways (some illegal) to secure a steady income. Lenny was first arrested for obscenity in 1961, and while he would be acquitted of that particular charge, Lenny would continue to be arrested for obscenity and was eventually convicted in 1964 despite strong support from individuals such as Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsburg. While out on bail during the appeals process in 1966, Lenny died of a narcotics overdose at his Hollywood Hills home. A biographical film based on Bruce\u2019s life starring Dustin Hoffman was soon produced in 1974 and entitled Lenny<\/em>. Furthermore, on December 23, 2003, New York Governor Pataki granted Bruce a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Duke Ellington <\/strong>(Edward Kennedy Ellington): Born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C., Ellington was himself the son to two professional pianists. Duke began playing professional piano himself in the D.C. area in 1917. Ellington found initial success as a pianist\/bandleader\/composer in New York in the early 1920\u2019s and would find mainstream success as early as 1926.\u00a0 Ellington toured the United States and Europe and successfully altered his style to the \u201cswing\u201d form of jazz that became widely popular in the 1930\u2019s. Duke became an icon and legend of jazz, collaborating with some of the biggest names in the industry and receiving numerous awards. Ellington eventually died of cancer in 1974 and was succeeded as a bandleader by his son, Mercer. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dizzy Gillespie <\/strong>(John Birks Gillespie): Born October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina, the legendary trumpeter began playing the piano at age four. Dizzy studied music in North Carolina and eventually made a profession out of touring and recording jazz. Gillespie is best known for helping usher in the be-bop era of jazz, largely due to his love for Afro-Cuban music and his Afro-American heritage in general. Sharing the stage with other legendary musicians and composers, Gillespie was respected by both listeners and other professionals. Dizzy would eventually tour the world over and die after a long and successful life in 1993 in New Jersey. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Billie Holiday <\/strong>(Eleanora Fagan): Born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Billie Holiday is considered one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time. Holiday spent her young life in Baltimore but due to extreme poverty, was forced to drop out of school while in the fifth grade and procure a job running errands in a brothel. After moving to Harlem with her mother at the age of twelve, Holiday was eventually arrested for prostitution. Still poor and desperate for money, Holiday auditioned for a job as a singer at a local speak-easy and, by 1933, had her first big breakthrough. Throughout the 1930\u2019s Holiday performed with other famous jazz musicians and eventually paired up with Lester Young to record some of the most notable jazz songs of all time. Holiday performed throughout the 1940\u2019s and well into the 1950\u2019s but her addiction to alcohol and narcotics eventually caught up to her and her voice. Holiday would die in a New York hospital in 1959 due to complications from liver and heart disease. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Louis Armstrong: <\/strong>Born August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Armstrong is one of the most beloved jazz musicians of all time. Louis learned to play trumpet and cornet while at a juvenile delinquent home during his late childhood. Armstrong quickly became proficient on his instrument, playing in numerous bands and eventually securing a job as a member in a riverboat dance band. Eventually Armstrong\u2019s idol King Oliver would ask Louis to come to Chicago to be a member of his band and play second cornet. It was through this gig that Louis gained his fame and showed the world just how talented he was. Armstrong was the first great jazz soloist and eventually showed his talent as a singer as well. Popular as a musician, comedian, and all around character his whole life, Armstrong would die at the age of 69 in 1971 in New York. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bob Dylan <\/strong>(Robert Allen Zimmerman): Born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan attended the University of Minneapolis where he became interested in folk music and started using the alias Bob Dylan. Dylan dropped out of college after one year but stuck around the city of Minneapolis to pursue a career as a folk musician. After going on tour and spending some time in New York, Dylan was signed to Columbia Records in the early 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 Dylan gained initial fame by performing protest songs, usually just him and an acoustic guitar. Eventually Dylan grew tired of being pigeonholed as a folk protest singer and switched his sound up, a change that stirred public criticism and protests of its own. Despite listeners\u2019 reluctance to accept anything other than the acoustic guitar wielding, protest song singing Dylan, he has been widely adored throughout his career. Dylan has traveled the world over and to this day still performs and writes music. Dylan is a true American legend who has inspired almost every singer-songwriter in some way.\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Eldridge Cleaver: <\/strong>Born in 1935 in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, Cleaver became interested in politics while in prison for a marijuana possession charge. After reading Thomas Paine, Marx, and Lenin, Cleaver joined the Black Panther Party (BPP) when he got out of prison. Eldridge obtained the position of Minister of Information and called for armed insurrection and a black socialist government. When the FBI became concerned with the work of the BPP, it was not long before Cleaver found himself a wanted man. During a police ambush on Cleaver and other members of the BPP, Cleaver fled but was eventually caught and charged with numerous crimes. Cleaver fled the country and stayed in exile for many years. Once he returned to America as a born-again Christian, Cleaver was put on trial but only received five years probation. Cleaver performed numerous good faith operations for the remainder of his life but struggled with drugs constantly. Eldridge died in 1998, cause unknown per his family\u2019s request. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Martin Luther King Jr.: <\/strong>Born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, King entered into a family of pastors at the nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church. King attended Morehouse College for his B.A., Crozer Theological Seminary for his B.D., and Boston University for his Ph.D. In 1954, Dr. King became pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. By this time King was also a member of the executive committee for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1955, King organized the legendary Montgomery Bus Boycotts that lasted for over a year and led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling stating that segregated transportation was unconstitutional. King fought tirelessly for African Americans’ civil rights, penning the \u201cLetter from a Birmingham Jail\u201d manifesto and giving his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech in front of 250,000 people. At 35, King was the youngest person to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John Lennon and Yoko Ono: <\/strong>When the famous couple decided to marry, they turned the event into an opportunity to promote world peace. They were married in 1969 during the height of the Vietnam War and wanted to turn the publicity of the occasion into a medium to promote their anti-war beliefs. During two separate weeks\u2014one in Amsterdam and one in Montreal\u2014John and Yoko held \u201cbed-ins\u201d to nonviolently promote peace. The idea for a \u201cbed-in\u201d came from the \u201csit-ins\u201d of the American Civil Rights movement. The bed-ins were successful, drawing much attention from fans and the media. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Woody Allen <\/strong>(Allen Konigsberg): <\/strong>Born December 1, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, Woody is a comedian, actor, director, musician, and all-around artist. Starting his career at age 15 selling one-liners to a local newspaper, Woody\u2019s climb to fame was a quick one. Woody moved on to stand-up comedy and later became an actor and screenwriter. Allen has won 3 Academy Awards and has been nominated a total of 23 times. Woody is also a jazz clarinetist and performs regularly in small Manhattan clubs. Regarded as one of the best filmmakers of our time, Woody is a living legend. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>William J. Brennan: <\/strong>Born April 25, 1906 in Newark, New Jersey to Irish immigrants, Brennan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928 and Harvard Law in 1931. Early in his career, Brennan worked as a labor law attorney and a JAG during World War II. In 1949, Brennan was appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court and then, in 1952, to the New Jersey Supreme Court. President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Brennan to the United States Supreme Court in 1956, a decision the President later regretted due to Brennan\u2019s decidedly liberal approach to the law. Believing in a living Constitution, Brennan tirelessly fought for what he saw as best for the country. Brennan was on the Court for 34 years and authored over 1,300 opinions. He died after a long and prosperous life in 1997. CLICK HERE<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conversing with Nat Hentoff produces feelings of sincere admiration coupled with deep yet light-hearted envy. Aside from being a prolific writer and journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, and numerous others, Hentoff\u2019s self-proclaimed three life passions are jazz, the Constitution, and an atheist approach to anti-abortion. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2344"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}